Sara is the perfect young housewife. When husband Hessam requires an expensive emergency operation abroad, it is she who works for the funds. For the next three years she labors secretly to pay the shady loan shark and save Hessam - until the truth is revealed and with it, the reality of her marriage.
Acting
Karimi's face does what scripts fear to write.
Direction
Mehrjui frames domesticity like a prison documentary.
Writing
The loan shark has more honor than the husband.
Director
Dariush Mehrjui
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Iran's post-revolutionary 'New Wave,' the film smuggles feminist critique through the approved genre of 'family drama.'
Mehrjui based Sara partly on Ibsen's 'A Doll's House,' but where Nora slams the door, Iranian cinema required something more ambiguous.
IR
